I was away on a business trip when Zeevee launched their re-branded “Zinc” multimedia front-end for Windows. However, CEO Vic Odryna was kind enough to still pass me a pre-release Mac OS X build to play with.
But first a little backstory… ZeeVee launched the clever but overpriced and perhaps overly complex ZvBox last summer - which streamed a variety of media from PC over coax to QAM-tuning televisions throughout the home. I don’t imagine sales were strong. But Zeevee has found success by commercializing their technology. And the Zviewer software took on a life of its own. Rumors of ZvBox mothballing their consumer hardware have been greatly exaggerated… new stuff’s in the pipeline.
Back to Zinc (formerly Zviewer) - which they’re calling an ‘Internet video browser.’ And indeed it really is a browser. Unlike Boxee, which has built their application on top of XBMC, Zinc is a super-customized Mozilla (Firefox) build. Meaning, it’s likely web video can’t be blocked. (Related, Boxee tacked on a browser as the latest salvo in their ongoing Hulu battle.) I’m not certain what Zeevee’s release timing is, but the beta build I’m playing with makes it seem pretty close. Stay tuned.
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